Officer Jennifer Gautier Arrested for Doctor Shopping

A veteran Hammond Police Department officer was arrested on a charge of possession of a controlled dangerous substance by fraud, the department announced Tuesday in a news release.

According to the release, Officer Jennifer Payne Gautier, 35, was found by investigators to be "doctor shopping" to obtain multiple prescriptions of controlled substances.

She turned herself in to investigators Tuesday. She was charged with possession of a controlled dangerous substance by fraud.

Gautier served with the department for 13 years and will be placed on administrative leave until due process of the courts.

Officer Bradley Wax Arrested for Child Porn

A New Orleans police officer has been arrested and booked under allegations of possessing child pornography.

According to the Louisiana Attorney General's Office, Bradley Wax, 54, has been arrested and charged with 38 counts of possessing pornography involving juveniles.

Wax, a 16-year veteran assigned to the New Orleans Police Department's 4th District, was arrested in St. Tammany and has been booked in the St. Tammany Parish jail.

According to the attorney general's office, an undercover operation led investigators to securing a search warrant on Wax's home in January. After searching his computer and other electronic devices, investigators found Wax had child pornography.

The NOPD has placed Wax on emergency suspension without pay pending the outcome of an ongoing criminal investigation. He faces 20 years in prison on each count of child pornography.

The case was a joint investigation by the attorney general's cyber crimes unit, the St. Tammany Sheriff's Office and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Officer Desmond Pleads Guilty to Sex Charges

New Orleans police Officer Desmond Pratt, a former homicide detective who investigated a 2009 murder pinned on accused Central City crime boss Telly Hankton, stood up in orange jail scrubs Friday and lightly fist-bumped a courtroom bailiff.

He crossed his chest with a shackled hand, heaved a nervous breath and gestured to a pair of relatives sitting in the gallery. Pratt then turned to the judge and pleaded guilty to three felony sex charges stemming from separate allegations spanning 15 years, back to his days as a rookie cop.

Criminal District Court Judge Franz Zibilich recited the rights Pratt already knew and was giving up with his plea, then handed him a three-year prison sentence.

Pratt pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual battery and one count of carnal knowledge of a juvenile. He shook his head and frequently glanced back at his weeping family, who sat alongside the dry-eyed mother of the most recent victim.

The deal culminated weeks of plea negotiations between prosecutors and Pratt’s attorney, Robert Jenkins, before a trial scheduled for Tuesday.

Indicted in August, Pratt, 43, faced as much as two decades behind bars if convicted in an aggravated sex crime involving the most recent victim, whose allegation dates from last spring.

The allegation in that case was reduced to sexual battery. Pratt also faced charges of aggravated sexual assault and carnal knowledge of a juvenile from earlier incidents in 1998 and 2001. He pleaded guilty as charged to those counts. All three victims were from 13 to 15 years old at the time of the incidents.

The two older allegations stemmed from complaints made after Pratt was arrested last April.

First, a Texas woman came forward to say Pratt had abused her while she was a student at a New Orleans public school. Police then unearthed an old complaint against Pratt from 2001, when another victim accused him of abuse; NOPD detectives at the time of that complaint determined the evidence to be “inconclusive.”

Prosecutor Jason Napoli acknowledged that the two earlier victims refused to testify in the case and rebuffed prosecutors’ attempts to gain their cooperation. Most recently, Napoli said, the victim from the 1998 incident last week “informed us she was not willing to get on that flight.”

Also, the victim in the most recent incident “does not wish a severe penalty on him,” Napoli told Zibilich.

The girl’s desire, and the lack of cooperation from the others, weighed on the sentence, said Zibilich, who also noted that none of the victims wanted to make a statement in court following Pratt’s plea, as the law allows.

Still, “one can only assume at least some activity occurred,” the judge said of the allegations.

“Whether these victims have actually forgiven you is something I don’t really know,” Zibilich told Pratt. The judge urged Pratt to “address this issue” while in prison and said he would recommend that the state assign him to a special facility for security reasons.

At an earlier hearing, Zibilich had urged Pratt to consider a plea deal, noting that the most serious of the charges in the indictment could have landed him in prison for 20 years if he was convicted. “You’re at risk here,” he said at the March 13 hearing.

Just how Pratt’s conviction could affect pending criminal cases in which he has played a role remains uncertain.

Hankton, who is serving a life prison sentence for a 2008 murder, is among 13 family members and alleged associates charged in a federal racketeering case that wraps together other murders, violent crimes and an alleged drug ring dating back decades.

Among the murders was the slaying of Hankton rival Jessie “TuTu” Reed in 2009. A witness in that case, Hasan “Hockie” Williams, identified Hankton as one of the shooters, according to police, and was gunned down a few weeks later. Pratt played a lead role in the investigation of Reed’s murder, and he requested witness protection for Williams shortly before his killing, according to police documents.

In the meantime, Pratt’s involvement in another case already has caused trouble for District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro’s office. Last year, Pratt refused to testify about a murder investigation. Through his testimony, prosecutors were trying to introduce witness statements that he took, but they were stymied by his silence on the witness stand.

That prosecution, accusing Terrance Nobles, 22, and Demond Taylor, 29, of gunning down 18-year-old Roderick Sheppard in October 2010, remains pending.

Christopher Bowman, a spokesman for Cannizzaro’s office, said he didn’t know how many pending cases may still involve Pratt as a potential witness or what will become of them.

“We’re going to deal with those on a case-by-case basis,” Bowman said.

He also said he didn’t know whether any criminal cases had been scuttled because of the sex allegations against Pratt.

Although Napoli offered no opinion in court Friday about what sentence Zibilich should impose — sexual battery carries a possible sentence of zero to 10 years — Cannizzaro agreed to the plea deal because it locked in prison time for the officer, Bowman said.

“What we got out of the deal was a guarantee for years in prison,” Bowman said. “Also, for the crimes he was convicted of, he will have to register for the rest of his life as a sex offender. We were able to satisfy our public safety objectives as well as the desires of the victims, so this was a good day.”

Pratt will get credit for the 11 months he has spent behind bars, mostly in St. Charles Parish. As he left the courtroom accompanied by an Orleans Parish sheriff’s deputy, Pratt mouthed, “I didn’t do it.” Ambling down the hallway in chains, he stopped to chat with family members and the mother of the most recent victim.

Prosecutors said she had been uncooperative in their investigation — a claim she hotly disputed to the judge.

Officer Michael Thomassie Charged with Aggravated Rape

A veteran New Orleans police officer has surrendered to police following an indictment for aggravated rape.

He is in custody in Orleans Parish prison and is being held without bond.

According to the Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office, the warrant was issued for 12-year-veteran officer Michael Thomassie after he was indicted by a grand jury Thursday on a single count of aggravated rape.

The allegation dates back to 2004 and 2005 when the alleged victim in the case was between 7 and 9 years of age, according to a spokesman for the office.

Thomassie is a 12-year veteran of the department. He was most recently assigned to desk duty in the 4th District.

Former Officer Michael Lohman Pleas Guilty to Shooting

A former lieutenant of the New Orleans Police Department, who is charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice, has entered a guilty plea. He is alleged of having helped cover up fellow officers’ fatal shootings of two unarmed people during the chaotic period following Hurricane Katrina.

Michael Lohman, 42, was not initially present at the scene of the shootings, which took place on the Danziger Bridge and which injured four people in addition to the two who were killed. However, Lohman later went to the scene and concluded that the shooting was unjustified, but nevertheless file false police reports. Additionally, as the officer in charge of investigating the shooting, he allegedly looked the other way when another investigator planted a gun at the scene of the crime, asking only if the weapon in question was “clean” — police parlance for a gun that cannot be traced back to a prior crime.

According to survivors of the September 4, 2005 incident, the police fired at people who were crossing the bridge in search of food, during the aftermath of the infamous hurricane which threw the city into turmoil. None of those people were armed.

Killed by police gunfire were a 40-year-old mentally disable man, Ronald Madison, and a teenager, 19-year-old James Brissette.

A recently unsealed indictment says that Lohman and two sergeants, who remain unidentified, wrote two different accounts of the bridge shootings, both false reports. One of claims made was that a victim had come forward to say that her nephew was among those firing guns at police. Federal officials contend that Lohman, unhappy with a false report written by a fellow investigator, then crafted his own false report. He also allegedly told the investigator to collude with the shooters, to make sure that they were “OK with” the bogus report and with giving statements that would back it up.

Seven officers had been charged with murder or attempted murder in the shooting, but a state judge dismissed those charges in 2008, making Lohman the first person to face justice. He is scheduled to be sentenced May 26.

In the days following Hurricane Katrina and the flooding that resulted, there were numerous reports of violence against police and rescue personnel, many of which were later proven untrue. The shootings on the bridge were one of the most highly publicized events, and this notoriety may account for the subsequent cover-up, which U.S. Attorney Jim Letten has called “a pretty elaborate ongoing conspiracy.”

Former Officer Pleads Guilty in Katrina Killing

A former police lieutenant pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiring to obstruct justice after federal officials say he helped cover for officers who killed two people on a bridge in the chaos following Hurricane Katrina.

Federal investigators say former lieutenant Michael Lohman knew two people shot to death as they crossed the Danziger Bridge had no weapons, but he and others filed false reports to make the shootings seem justified. Four other people were wounded.

Family members of the victims gathered at the downtown federal courthouse as Lohman arrived to enter his plea.

“We are very, very happy about the progress that the FBI and the US Justice Department have made,’’ said Dr. Romell Madison, brother of Ronald Madison, who was killed on the bridge.

“It’s a tremendous relief for us to see some sort of closure. The people of New Orleans should be relieved that there is still justice for everybody here.’’

Seven officers were charged with murder or attempted murder in the Sept. 4, 2005, shootings, just days after Katrina smashed levees and flooded 80 percent of the city.

But a state judge dismissed the charges in 2008.

Until Lohman’s plea yesterday, no one had been convicted in the deaths of Madison, 40, a mentally disabled man, and James Brissette, 19.

Four others were wounded.

Former Officer Michael Lohman Preparing to Enter Guilty Plea

A former New Orleans police official is preparing to enter a guilty plea in connection with a federal probe of a deadly police shooting in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, two people familiar with the case said Tuesday.

Former police Lt. Michael Lohman is expected to enter the plea Wednesday in U.S. District Court, and he is cooperating with prosecutors, said the two people. They requested anonymity because the charge would not be announced before his court appearance.

It's unclear what charge he faces because the case hasn't been unsealed. Lohman wasn't one of the seven police officers charged in the shooting on the Danziger bridge several days after Katrina's landfall in August 2005. He helped oversee a department probe of the men's actions.

A lawyer for one of the original defendants said federal investigators have been looking into what they described as a "corrupt investigation" of the fatal shootings of Ronald Madison, a 40-year-old mentally disabled man, and James Brissette, 19.

The Justice Department's civil rights division opened its investigation after a judge threw out state murder and attempted murder charges against the seven in 2008. So far, lawyers for two other officers have identified their clients as targets of the current probe.

Sgt. Robert Gisevius, who was charged in state court with first-degree murder and attempted murder, received a letter informing federal authorities were targeting him. His attorney, Eric Hessler, said the letter accused him of using excessive force and participating in a "corrupt investigation" of the shooting. Hessler defended his client's actions.

"By all accounts, he was involved in a situation where a reasonable person would be in fear for his life," he said.

Steve London, a lawyer for New Orleans police Sgt. Arthur Kaufman, said his client also received a letter informing him he is a target of a federal investigation. The letter doesn't specify why, but Kaufman worked on the department's investigation of the bridge shooting. Kaufman wasn't one of the seven who faced state charges.

London said his client denies any wrongdoing.

"My client is a 30-year police veteran with not one complaint, has received many awards and is considered an exemplary officer," he said.

Lohman, who retired earlier this month, helped supervise the department's investigation of the fatal shootings, said Fraternal Order of Police spokesman Donovan Livaccari.

Lohman's attorney, Dylan Utley, and U.S. Attorney Jim Letten wouldn't comment Tuesday.

Police superintendent Warren Riley said, "We hope that justice is served," declining to elaborate.

The case is among several involving New Orleans police in Katrina's aftermath that are being probed by the federal government. The others include the fatal shooting of Danny Brumfield Sr. outside the New Orleans convention center; the death of Henry Glover, whom witnesses claim died in police custody; and the fatal police shooting of a Connecticut man, Matthew McDonald.

Survivors of the Sept. 4, 2005, shootings on the Danziger bridge have said the officers fired at unarmed people who were crossing to get food at a grocery store. Madison and Brissette were shot and killed by police; four other people were wounded.

The officers acknowledged shooting at people on the bridge, but said they did so only after taking fire.

Katrina struck on Aug. 29, 2005. In its aftermath, levees broke, flooding 80 percent of New Orleans. Chaos gripped the city, and looting was reported in some areas. Rescuers sometimes said they thought gunfire was directed at them.

Survivors of the bridge shooting said in civil suits that they were ambushed by the officers who jumped out of the back of a rental truck.

Daniel G. Abel, a lawyer for the Brissette family, said they are grateful for investigators' work on the case.

"This first conviction bolsters their hope that the individuals responsible for these and related crimes will be brought to justice," Abel said.

Gisevius, Sgt. Kenneth Bowen, Officer Anthony Villavaso II and former Officer Robert Faulcon Jr. each faced first-degree murder and attempted murder charges in the case. State district Judge Raymond Bigelow also threw out attempted first-degree murder charges against Officer Mike Hunter Jr. and Officer Robert Barrios and attempted second-degree murder charges against Officer Ignatius Hills.

Faulcon resigned from the police force; the other officers were assigned to desk duty after their indictment.

Police Brutality Book Written About New Orleans

With its French, Spanish and Creole influences, New Orleans has the oldest black urban community of any city in the country. It also has a shocking history of police brutality that is told in “Black Rage in New Orleans: Police Brutality and African American Activism from World War II to Hurricane Katrina,” a new book by Dr. Leonard N. Moore, associate professor of history and assistant vice president for the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement.

Moore’s book, which will be released by LSU Press in April, recounts the history of police brutality in the Crescent City along with the energetic opposition waged by blacks.

Although incidents of police brutality were recorded more than 50 years before WWII, Moore chose to begin his study with the war because it was a time when many African Americans moved to the city to get jobs.

Drawing on police records, records from civil rights organizations, oral histories and newspaper accounts, Moore details the problems with an underpaid, understaffed, undereducated police force that had an unwritten mandate to “keep black folks in line.”

In the early 1950s, New Orleans began hiring more African American policemen. However, Moore said these men weren’t allowed to wear uniforms or arrest white people. If an incident arose, they would have to borrow a phone and telephone a white officer to come and deal with whatever situation was at hand.

By the 1970s enough black officers had been hired that the Black Organization of Police in New Orleans was formed to begin addressing the aggressive policing tactics and to make sure black officers were treated fairly.

Dr. Leonard N. Moore“There was little the organization could do,” Moore said. “If officers in the organization were perceived as being radical, their career would stall.” He explained that corruption was woven into the culture from the top ranks.

Often black officers have been involved in the corruption and have brutalized black residents of New Orleans. “In many ways it was easier for them — they couldn’t be accused of racism,” Moore said.

Through the years, the black newspaper, The Louisiana Weekly, steadfastly reported incidents of brutality. The Times Picayune did not report a single incident of brutality until the 1970s, according to Moore.

What amazed Moore was the number of ordinary citizens who have protested and voiced their outrage throughout the years. From 1945-2000 he estimates that more than 30 organizations were established to deal with police brutality. Citizen groups such as the Police Brutality Committee, Committee for Accountable Police, the Liberation League and Community Action Now mobilized and managed to hold police anti-brutality meetings where 4,000 or more people would show up.

Corruption and brutality continued unabated until the late-1980s to mid-1990s. In 1994, Washington, D.C., Assistant Chief of Police Richard Pennington was hired to head up the New Orleans Police Department, and he began a series of reforms including community policing practices, increased training, better pay, as well as other reforms. During his tenure more than 350 police officers were indicted, fired or disciplined for misconduct. He left for Atlanta in 2002 after running for mayor and losing to Ray Nagin.

The effects of Pennington’s reform effort were not lasting, however, as Moore discusses in the book’s epilogue, Policing Katrina.

“Although the majority of the police officers served heroically during Katrina and its aftermath, there was thuggery as well,” Moore said. The incidents post-Katrina would include several high-profile incidents such as the Danziger Bridge incident in which two civilians were shot and four more injured.

Even in the past year, the Louisiana Weekly and the Times Picayune reported a coalition of community leaders, civil rights activists and ministers gathered to demand justice and answers after a fatal shooting involving plain-clothes police officers that left a 22-year-old New Orleans man dead, shot 12 times.

Moore’s goal for the book: “I’m hoping that when people pick up the book, they will see how brutality has been persistent. It is an everyday fact of life for many American people.”

Police Misconduct Lawsuit Settled in New Orleans

Attorneys for the city of New Orleans recently settled a pair of high-profile federal lawsuits alleging police misconduct.

One alleged brawl, involving city transit workers and off-duty officers, took place on Mardi Gras night at the Beach Corner bar in Mid-City. The other case centered on an incident in July 2006 inside a Central City bar.

On Friday, the city attorney's office reached a settlement in federal court with the American Civil Liberties Union, which represents Steven Elloie, a bar manager who alleged he was beaten, twice shocked with a Taser stun gun and falsely arrested inside the Sportsman's Corner bar.

According to the suit, Elloie was taking inventory in the stockroom that night when the officers "entered the bar in an aggressive and belligerent manner" and announced they were looking for two young black men wearing blue jeans and white T-shirts. The 16 customers inside the bar told the police that no one fitting that description had come in.

Though they had no search warrant or permission to search the bar, the officers began "forcefully opening and attempting to open doors," and one officer grabbed Elloie and told him he was going to jail, the suit alleged. Elloie said four or five cops then began hitting and kicking him.

Police booked him with resisting arrest and battery on one of the police officers, but the charges were later dropped. The Elloie family filed Public Integrity Bureau complaints with more than a dozen supporting witnesses. The internal affairs division of the NOPD found that Elloie's claims were "unsubstantiated."

Elloie's attorney, Katie Schwartzmann of the ACLU, declined to release the settlement amount, which is in addition to attorney's fees.

"The settlement in this case is a great outcome for Steven Elloie, but until we have meaningful internal accountability for officers who break the law, we will continue to have problems with police misconduct in this City," Schwartzmann said in a released statement. "People must be able to trust the police."

Police spokesman Bob Young did not immediately return a request for comment Friday. The city attorney, Penya Moses-Fields, did not return a request for comment late Friday afternoon regarding the Elloie case.

Some of the same officers involved in the Elloie incident were later involved in another well-publicized case. That case, closed Friday in federal district court, was brought by a Regional Transit Authority employee who alleged he, and some co-workers, were beaten and falsely arrested in a racially charged bar brawl with off-duty officers in 2008. The dismissal came two weeks after the two sides reached an agreement.

Lamont Williams, the RTA worker, alleged that he and three co-workers, who are all black, were subjected to racial epithets, followed outside and beaten by off-duty, plainclothes officers. He also alleged that a police officer pulled a gun from a co-worker's car, planted it on Williams, then falsely arrested him for possession of a gun - a charge that was later dropped.

The city settled the case for $25,000, according to Moses-Fields.

"The City of New Orleans decided it was a good business decision to settle the cases because litigating them to completion would have cost more than $25,000," Moses-Fields wrote in an e-mail message. "The City of New Orleans entered into the settlement with absolutely no admission of liability."

One of the officers, David Lapene, was dropped from the lawsuit "after it became apparent that the officer had absolutely nothing to do with" the incident, Moses-Field noted.

Police attorney Frank DeSalvo said Friday that the "whole case was a sham" and that the small settlement amount shows the allegations had little merit.

Attorney Stephen Rue, who brought the case, said Williams had difficulty identifying the specific officer who punched him. Ultimately, Williams wanted to settle the case and move on, Rue said.

The NOPD's own initial investigation concluded that five officers broke police conduct rules and then lied to investigators, with at least one officer coercing a civilian witness to lie.

Police Superintendent Warren Riley fired two officers: Sgt. Warren Keller Jr, who allegedly exchanged harsh words with Williams inside the restroom stall, kicking off the imbroglio; and Lapene, who was dropped from the federal suit, and who allegedly threw a punch that landed on William's face. Both officers have appealed their terminations to the city's Civil Service Commission.

The NOPD initial investigation also concluded that another off-duty officer, Jennifer Samuel, committed wrongdoing. She was suspended for 80 days.

A criminal inquiry into the officers' actions was opened, but charges were never filed. Then-District Attorney Keva Landrum-Johnson's office responded to the NOPD in writing, saying the matter had been refused for prosecution because an essential witness, RTA worker Kennis Hagan, had drowned in an unrelated incident.

Officer Nikia Adams Arrested for Being Cruel to Animals

A call to the St. John animal shelter for help to remove a dead dog has landed a New Orleans police officer behind bars.

Nikia Adams was arrested Thursday for allegedly being cruel to animals. St John Parish deputies say Adams was arrested after two of her dogs were found earlier this week severely malnourished.

The St. John animal shelter called deputies after going to Adam’s home Tuesday to help with the removal of a deceased pet.

Adams is now out on bond.

Two New Orleans Officers Arrested

Two New Orleans police officers were booked into jail Thursday in separate criminal incidents.

In one case, a 6th District officer was indicted on charges that he participated in kidnapping a woman last summer. His partner, who was indicted last fall, is accused of undressing and raping the woman while she remained shackled, according to court documents.

In Thursday's other arrest, an officer was booked into jail for allegedly firing his weapon into his car at a downtown hotel parking garage while off-duty.

The arrests are the latest in a steady stream of misconduct cases to hit the New Orleans Police Department, which finds itself under federal investigation for possible deadly misconduct in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

NOPD spokesman Bob Young acknowledged the indictment of officer Thomas Clark, 36, on a count of second-degree kidnapping, adding that the allegations stem from the same incident as an alleged rape by Clark's partner, Henry Hollins.

Henry Hollins is being held in lieu of $1.5 million bail.

In November, Hollins was indicted both with aggravated rape and kidnapping. He is being held in jail in lieu of $1.5 million bail, according to court records.

Young said Clark is suspended without pay pending the outcome of the criminal case. Clark, who joined the NOPD in 2001, remained in jail on Thursday evening.

The Clark and Hollins indictments were unusual in that they stemmed from investigations conducted by the Orleans Parish district attorney's office, not the NOPD's Public Integrity Bureau.

Chris Bowman, a spokesman for the DA, acknowledged Clark's indictment, but declined to elaborate on the circumstances of the case.

Court documents allege that Hollins, 46, drove a woman to the intersection of Tchoupitoulas and Felicity streets "where he completely disrobed and raped the victim while she remained in handcuffs."

Hollins then drove the woman to an unknown location and released her from custody, the arrest warrant states.

Months prior to his indictment in the alleged rape, Hollins, a 12-year police veteran, was arrested and booked with domestic abuse for allegedly punching his wife in the mouth with a closed fist.

He was placed on desk duty following the domestic violence arrest in late August. After his indictment in November, NOPD Superintendent Warren Riley said Hollins was suspended without pay.

Clark's attorney, Frank DeSalvo, criticized the district attorney's office for its handling of the case.

"It's extortion," he said.

DeSalvo said that Howard Robertson, the head of the investigative unit for the district attorney, only made the case on Clark because the officer refused to implicate his partner by admitting to certain details of the crime.

"He wanted (Clark) to come in and tell him what he wanted to hear," DeSalvo claimed.

Bowman declined to respond to DeSalvo's accusation, saying "the district attorney's office is not going to try this or any other case in the media."

In Thursday's other arrest, police booked Officer Patrick O'Hern for illegally discharging a weapon on Dec. 12. The incident occurred about 2 p.m. on the rooftop parking lot of the Hilton New Orleans Riverside hotel at 2 Poydras St., said Officer Shereese Harper, a police spokeswoman.

Young said O'Hern fired his weapon several times into his personal vehicle. O'Hern was put on desk duty following the incident and now, after his arrest, is suspended without pay, Young said.

O'Hern was released from the Orleans Parish jail not long after he was booked. It is unclear who is representing him.

Sgt. Don LeDuff Accused of Shoplifting Perfume

A sergeant in the New Orleans Police Department's juvenile division retired Friday after he was accused of shoplifting a perfume bottle in a Metairie mall, authorities said.

Sergeant Don G. LeDuff, who served 34 years on the force, was accused of pilfering a bottle of fragrance from the J.C. Penney store at Lakeside Shopping Center in plain view of mall security guards, said Col. John Fortunato, a Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office spokesman.

Deputies issued LeDuff a misdemeanor summons for theft of an item worth less than $100. The Sheriff's Office notified NOPD's Public Integrity Bureau, Fortunato said, and LeDuff opted to retire "with more than 30 years on the job," New Orleans police spokesman Garry Flot said.

It wasn't clear Saturday if the accusations would affect LeDuff's retirement status, Flot said. LeDuff did not return a telephone message.

LeDuff's legal entanglement offered an ironic twist to a career that began in 1975.
In the days after Hurricane Katrina, he was credited with fending off looters intent on breaking into the Marriott Convention Center Hotel, according to a story in New Orleans CityBusiness.

The following year, the nonprofit NOLA's Ark, which planned to repair the flooded homes of at least 50 metro-area first responders, rewarded LeDuff by selecting his eastern New Orleans home as one of the first three to be fixed.

Officer Desmond Shorty Arrested for Taking Watch From Woman's Purse

A New Orleans police officer accused of stealing a watch while on a service call was previously cited for crimes two other times, court records revealed.

Desmond Shorty, 24, resigned from the police department after he was arrested for allegedly taking a $3,500 watch from a woman's purse while inside an apartment without a search warrant on a disturbance call, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported Friday.

Court records show Shorty was issued a municipal summons for domestic battery in September 2008 and again in March for public intoxication, public intimidation and resisting an officer. Both of the alleged incidents occurred while he was a police recruit.

Police spokesman Bob Young said Shorty is attending a domestic violence intervention program as a result of last year's incident. He said the other charges, stemming from an incident outside of a nightclub in the city's French Quarter, were later dropped by prosecutors.
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Officer Henry Hollins Arrested for Punching his Wife

A veteran New Orleans police officer has been reassigned to desk duty following his arrest on a domestic battery charge, and amid two other internal investigations into other possible violations.

Henry L. Hollins, 46, was arrested last Tuesday night after punching his wife in the mouth "with a closed fist, " according to an arrest report.

Hollins, 12-year police veteran, then pushed her to the floor, causing her to hit her face, "resulting in a two-inch raised area" in the center of her forehead, the report states. He was booked with simple domestic battery into Orleans Parish Prison.

He appeared before a magistrate judge the next day, and was ordered held in lieu of $10,000 bail, according to court records. He posted bond and was released.

Police Department spokesman Bob Young said Tuesday night that Hollins had been reassigned to desk duty in the wake of his arrest.

Young also acknowledged that Hollins is under investigation for two other possible violations, at least of one of which could be criminal in nature. The department's Public Integrity Bureau, which handles internal investigations, is looking into those allegations.

Young did not have details on the nature of the investigations.

New Orleans Police Sgt Charged with Raping Step Children

A New Orleans police sergeant was charged this week with three counts of rape and three counts of incest.

A St. Tammany Parish grand jury on Wednesday indicted the 51-year-old Slidell-area man. All three counts stemmed from alleged incidents with his two stepdaughters and his stepson, authorities said.

The Times-Picayune is withholding the man's name to protect the identity of his victims. Authorities would not disclose the age of the victims, but cases in which a victim is under the age of 13 fall under the state's definition of aggravated rape.

Investigators began looking into the allegations in December after one of the sergeant's stepchildren told a teacher about the alleged incident, according to St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Jack Strain, who spoke to the press soon after the sergeant turned himself in on Jan. 15.

The sergeant, a 17-year veteran of the police force, was suspended on Jan 15 - the day of his arrest - but then was reinstated on Jan. 26 to administrative desk duty, where he is currently assigned, according to New Orleans Police Department spokesman Bob Young.

The NOPD's Public Integrity Bureau, which investigates police misconduct, has an ongoing investigation into the accusations, Young said.

The sergeant is expected to enter a plea of not guilty, according to Raymond Burkhart III, one of two private defense attorneys.

"The case is in its very early stages and we categorically deny the accusations being made," Burkhart said.

There is no indication the sergeant abused his position at NOPD to prey on others, Strain said.

The grand jury panel on Wednesday also indicted two other men on sex crimes.

Ryan Mitzell, 19, of Sun was charged with sexual battery for abusing a 7-year-old boy sometime between May 26 and June 1, 2008. The alleged abuse came to light after the victim, now 8, told a relative, who then told authorities, according to the district attorney's office.

In another case, a 20-year-old Covington man, was indicted with aggravated rape for allegedly abusing the five-year-old daughter of his girlfriend between July 20, 2006 and March 2, 2007.

Mississippi law enforcement officials uncovered the alleged abuse after investigating a separate alleged abuse of the victim's brother.
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Two Jefferson Parish Deputies Arrested for Beating Up Teens

Two Jefferson parish sheriff's deputies have been arrested and kicked off the force after brutality allegations. A couple of teenagers say the deputies beat them up in Marrero.

According to the teens, they were playing paintball at an abandoned Marrero apartment complex last weekend when approached by deputies Cornell Farlin and Shawn Henry. The teens claimed Farlin and Henry handcuffed them, and then began punching and kicking them, even using their police batons, before releasing them with a summons.

"I think the message here is the quickness in which we responded to the complaint, that we take this very seriously," said Sheriff Newell Normand at a news conference Friday. "This type of conduct by our officers will not be tolerated."

Sheriff Normand said the two accusers also said there were other deputies present during the beating. The sheriff says the investigation continues.
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Judge Wayne Cresap Arrested on Wire Fraud

A onetime New Orleans city attorney who came to prominence after a hard-fought, underdog election for a St. Bernard Parish judgeship in 1999, Wayne Cresap led a quiet life in a parish legendary for its political eccentricities.

He gained a reputation as a jurist who doled out hefty bonds and long jail sentences and as a friend to St. Bernard sheriff's deputies who strongly supported his only competitive election a decade ago.

But before he was vaulted into the public limelight last week after being arrested by the FBI on wire fraud charges, the 62-year-old judge had been a central figure in some of St. Bernard's most far-reaching and controversial lawsuits, court records and interviews show.

His rulings in 2002 and 2003 put him in the middle of the twisted, politically charged fight over the estimated $250 million estate left by Arlene Meraux, the heiress to St. Bernard land baron Joseph Meraux's fortune.

And his behavior at another 2002 hearing relating to a massive case brought against the state by oyster harvesters earned him a rebuke by the Louisiana Supreme Court.

"He was never one to shy away from those controversial type of cases," said longtime Chalmette lawyer John Finckbeiner Jr., who moved his practice to the French Quarter after 2005 but tries numerous cases in St. Bernard's 34th Judicial District. But as a politician, Finckbeiner said, Cresap "was never one of the big social guys."

"He would do things for the community, but he wasn't one to be running to every event and every dinner at the Chamber and the Kiwanis Club, and this fair and that fair."

Parish abuzz

News of Cresap's alleged involvement in a judicial corruption scheme with at least two unnamed lawyers has left St. Bernard's tight-knit legal community at the center of a whirlwind of rumors.

"Of course everybody's kind of shocked that it happened. That's some really strong charges, you know, not only for the judge, but also for the lawyers involved," Chalmette attorney Alan Bouterie said. "It kind of throws a cloud over every lawyer down here. If there's two lawyers out of 40 lawyers down here now practicing actively, that means there's 38 people who have a cloud over them totally unjustified."

According to an FBI affidavit, Cresap allegedly took cash for allowing inmates to be released from the St. Bernard Parish Prison without putting up money for the bond.

The two lawyers, described in the affidavit as "Lawyer A" and "Lawyer B," would take cash from the inmate's family or friends and then split the money with Cresap after the bond was converted. The two lawyers have not been arrested or named, and Cresap was released from Orleans Parish Prison on Monday night on a $100,000 signature bond -- the same type of bond he is accused of rigging for bribes.

Efforts to reach Cresap and his defense attorney, Pat Fanning, were unsuccessful.

Cresap was arrested April 24 and charged based on a criminal complaint, an unusual move. Federal authorities typically seek an indictment from a grand jury and let defendants surrender. But U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said last week that the FBI's arrest came because of concerns that Cresap might harm himself.

Cresap has not worked since April 10, when he took a leave for medical reasons. The district's other judges are handling his caseload.

Uptown upbringing

Unlike many in St. Bernard's small political sphere, Cresap was not born and bred in the suburban parish. He grew up in New Orleans, attended De La Salle High School in Uptown and worked for the city of New Orleans for years, including a stint as an assistant city attorney. He ran unsuccessfully for First City Court judge in New Orleans' Civil District Court in 1980.

Before moving to St. Bernard Parish, he raised some eyebrows in 1981 when he sued Chalmette's Mystic Krewe of Shangri-La, a women's Carnival club, claiming the organization breached a contract that would have let him reign as king during the 1982 Carnival season. He asked for $100,000 for "humiliation and embarrassment."

Judge Melvyn Perez, Cresap's predecessor in Division C, ruled in favor of the krewe. Cresap appealed the decision to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeal, which backed Perez.

Cresap went on to work as a trial lawyer in Chalmette and became active on the board of the St. Bernard chapter of the Alliance for Good Government.

His political ascendancy was aided by Sheriff Jack Stephens, who threw his support behind Cresap in a tight runoff in 1999 against St. Bernard attorney Gregory Noto. Cresap was on Stephens' payroll in the 1990s as legal counsel, and he had represented deputies in other cases as a trial lawyer in St. Bernard.

But Stephens said he supported Cresap because of a groundswell from the rank-and-file in his department.

"He was a real longshot to win; he was a newcomer to politics," Stephens said. "It was actually the deputies that advanced his candidacy, because they were loyal to him."

Cresap, a Democrat, lives in Poydras with his wife. He was re-elected without opposition in 2002 and 2009. His annual base salary, set by the Legislature for district judges across the state, is about $106,300.

Fight over fortune

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Officer Darrius Clipps Charged with Home Invasions

A rookie New Orleans police officer has found himself on the other side of the law. That's after a number of home invasions, thought to have been committed by a police impersonator.

Officer Darrius Clipps is charged with aggravated burglary and sexual assault. New Orleans Police Superintendent Warren Riley says Clipps was on the force about a year. Clipps is accused of bursting into homes, demanding drugs and money, and asking the homeowners to take off their clothes.

After a composite sketch came forward of the suspect, several officers recognized Clipps. One witness even remembered Clipps' badge number. He resigned after his arrest.

Clipps has been booked with malfeasance in office, sexual battery, false imprisonment with a weapon, simple and aggravated kidnapping, aggravated burglary, and unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling.

Deputy Jamar Thomas Charged with DWI After Crashing Patrol Car

NEW ORLEANS

A Plaquemines Parish sheriff's deputy has been suspended indefinitely without pay after being arrested and charged with DWI Saturday night.

Police said Jamar Thomas was off-duty when he crashed his patrol car on a curb in Lakeview at Pontchartrain Boulevard and 12th Street at about 6 p.m.

The 10-year veteran has been suspended without pay by Sheriff I.F. "Jiff" Hingle. Authorities said he has been out on extended sick leave and should not have been driving the patrol car off-duty.

Deputy Mason Dixon Arrested for Sexually Assaulting Minor

COVINGTON, La.

Authorities said a former Vernon Parish sheriff's deputy has been charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.

St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Jack Strain said 31-year-old Mason Dixon, of Leesville, was arrested Wednesday by Vernon Parish sheriff's deputies on seven counts of felony carnal knowledge of a juvenile and four counts of oral sexual battery.

Strain said Friday that his office received information from a Slidell woman about several alleged incidents, occurring from September through January, involving Dixon and her daughter. He says Dixon had been in St. Tammany Parish fulfilling Louisiana National Guard training obligations.

Dixon, who had worked for the Vernon Parish Sheriff's Office since 2006, was being held in lieu of $375,000 bond at the St. Tammany Parish Jail. Strain said he's been placed in isolation for his protection.

Vernon Parish Sheriff Sam Craft said Dixon has been fired.